Nutty Putty Politics

Nutty Putty Politics

Nutty Putty Cave, in Utah, is a spelunkers delight, with lots of twisty and tight caverns. Unfortunately in the 49 years since it’s discovery 2 have died in the thrill seekers, playground.  The most recent, just this last month. As a result of the tragic death, of an experienced adventurer, the cave has been blasted and cemented closed permanently.

There are plenty of things that I don’t intend to try in this life, including, wedging my body into impossibly tight caverns, with several million tons of rock above me. However, up to 10,000 visitors a year, to Nutty Putty, found this painful activity recreational. So why shut it down?

Media attention has made society hypersensitive to imagined danger, while ignoring factors that are far more dangerous. Going on vacation can be dangerous, for example, those with a yearning for exotic locations, may choose to go to Thailand. Now that’s risky, 30,000 visitors a year are robbed, mugged, or beaten in Thailand. Mexico city is  even worse, with the highest murder rate per capita in the American Continents.

Driving is one of the most dangerous activities we engage in, so don’t get in a car if your really concerned about safety. If we followed the example, of the closing down, of Nutty Putty Cave, with our highways, none of them would still be open. Flying is the safest mode of transportation, and yet most flights I have been on, someone makes a nervous comment about the possibility of dieing in a horrific crash. You never hear, “I hope we don’t die on the way to the grocery store”, and yet, that is a far more dangerous trip, than a cross country flight.

Don’t go out in public either, you might catch H1N1, oh heaven forbid. Give me a break, far more people get sick and die of the regular flu. If you do get sick, don’t end up in intensive care, where, over 30% of patients end up with a serious infection. Don’t get a prescription either, 784,000 people die each year from doctor prescribed drugs. So while the government and the WHO have people freaked out, about H1N1, the regular flu, hospitals, and prescriptions will kill hundreds of times more people.

Before you bar the door, and have your hermetically sealed food deliveries pushed through the mail slot in your front door, the inside of your house is one of the most dangerous places to be. Slip and fall hazards, household chemicals, golf club swinging spouses…

The bottom line is, you have plenty of opportunities to die as a result of conducting your normal life. Sure spelunking is statistically more dangerous, but so what. Life needs risk, we need it to survive. Without risk, we loose the will to live, the ability to chance, the quest for what we have yet to reach. You can’t regulate, the need to test ourselves, out of us. Nor can you close off all passages of danger. Closing off Nutty Putty Cave is another political decision, intended to keep you safe, while we ignore,  that life itself is the hazard. Like the old saying, everyone who has lived will die, but not everyone who dies, has truly lived. The danger in life is not in the risking. It is in the not risking, it is not discovering what you are capable of, it is being held, at arms length from your dreams, by government over-reach, and regulation.

Political, with a Conservative View